What does it mean to be British?

Your children might not agree on this topic, but it’s a debate worth having

“Although I am Hindu, I am…kind of…baptised into Britishness,” Rudra ponders aloud to the class as he reasons why he identifies as British Indian.

As Rudra speaks, Luca shakes his head gently and signals to me that he wishes to contribute.
“If I keep getting more British, I am getting less Romanian. I want to stay Romanian too, because it is important to me.”

It’s our whole-school geography week and we’ve been exploring the idea of multiculturalism. In Year 5, this has meant fleshing out the concept of multiple identities and talking about the different ways in which the children might describe themselves, and be described by others.

The narratives generated by the children are more lucid, globe-spanning and insightful than I could have imagined. The time Mahi felt most British was while using a bucket to shower on a family visit abroad. For Rudra it was being ridiculed by his older relatives for the very British way he speaks Gujarati. Sahel, on the other hand, considers himself to be very British because he feels at home in ‘British clothes’.

Some of my pupils who were born in London feel entirely British, whilst others identify solely with the culture of their parents’ country of birth. Their fascinating thinking and writing reconfirmed a well-recognised paradox of being British – people feel they are, or are not, ‘it’ despite lacking a clear sense of what exactly ‘it’ is.

If schools are going to authentically promote a diverse British society that isn’t fractured along ethnic lines, it is not going to happen by accident or by osmosis. Children often see only their commonalities, but just as often they define themselves and those around them by their religion, native language, skin colour and culture. As such, the fostering of respect, understanding and acceptance of difference is the only way the British cultural patchwork can be preserved for the benefit of all young people.

The Department for Education issued guidance at the end of 2014 stating schools must actively promote ‘fundamental British values’ and it’s a document that provokes many pertinent questions. To begin with, we could ask why it has been written now. What real or imagined social ill does it seek to remedy? Can any values be common to an entire nation and, if so, who decides which are most central to our notion of British citizenship?

As is so often the case, teachers may separate the political discussions from the bread and butter priorities of the classroom. But I for one was left thinking: how can I make this into something worthwhile for our pupils to learn? If there does exist a set of values that’s fundamental to the British way of life then this needs to be explored, and for me this has meant putting together units of work that encourage children to critically explore the very nature of identity.

In class we filled the whiteboard with ideas about what it means to be British – ‘tea-drinking’, ‘queueing’, ‘cricket’ and a whole spread of familiar stereotypes. The discussion then edged deeper. When asked to draw and name the members of a ‘really British family’, the children depicted white people with traditionally English Christian names – this in a class where the overwhelming majority of pupils are of South Asian descent and had identified themselves as British or ‘British plus’ in the earlier lesson. My addition of the word ‘really’, to ‘really British family’ gave my pupils the impression I was referring to something that did not include them. In their minds, it would seem, there is more than one kind of Britishness.

The ultimate aim of exploring multiculturalism with our pupils is to prompt them to think hard about what binds us together and what makes Britain diverse. If we are to develop a shared sense of Britishness, a common ground occupied by all the nations, cultures and communities that call Britain home, then we must engage young people in the big questions of citizenship and belonging. And, as we do so, we must seek to answer the same questions ourselves.

About the author

Jonny Walker teaches Year 5 and is geography coordinator at Elmhurst Primary School in Forest Gate. See his blog at jonnywalkerteaching.wordpress.com